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Minimum Wage Hikes Expected to Benefit Direct-Care Workers
January 24, 2007
Direct-care workers typically make more than the minimum wage, but many are likely to benefit from the minimum wage raises going into effect in states across the nation. In addition, those in states that have not yet raised their minimum wages may benefit from the national hike that will likely be passed this year.
As a result of successful ballot initiatives that passed overwhelmingly in November, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio raised their minimum wages this month. Another three states will raise their minimum wages as a result of legislative action over the past year.
That will bring the number of states with minimum wages above the federal level of $5.15 an hour to 28, plus the District of Columbia. As a result, an estimated 1.5 million minimum wage workers will get a pay raise. What's more, the successful referendums include clauses to peg the minimum wage to cost-of-living increases, preventing its staying frozen at the same level for years, like the current federal rate, while the cost of living - and most wages - increase.
Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a national minimum wage bill this week that it is considered the most likely of its ''100 hours'' legislative blitz to pass. President Bush has already indicated that he will sign the bill, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour over the course of three years.
As of May 2005, the median wage for direct-care workers was $9.55, and even the lowest paid among direct-care staff-personal and home care aides-are paid an average of $8.34. But according to some experts, the minimum wage raises could have an impact beyond those that currently subsist on it.
In an article in Workforce Management, the director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says: ''There's going to be upward pressure in a lot of these wages that may not be the minimum wage now. There are a lot more employers who may be caught up in this.''
A recent AARP report, Paying for Quality Care: State and Local Strategies for Improving Wages and Benefits for Personal Care Assistants , makes a similar point. In it, authors Dorie Seavey and Vera Salter argue: ''State and city minimum wages have direct effects on the workers who receive them, but they also have indirect effects on other low-wage workers because they essentially establish a floor under the low-wage labor market and exert upward pressure on the general wage scale for low-income workers.''
Hadas Thier
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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